visit us at https://blog.laowaicareer.comtweet us @laowaicareer

Entrepreneurial Opportunities in China

China’s incredible growth over the past two decades has seen it transform from an isolated, economically stringent society to a multi-faceted, market-oriented

economy.

When looking at the sheer population in China, companies from the West tend to salivate at the

potential rewards of capturing even a small share of the Chinese consumer market.

However, the growing private sector in China is

being fueled by entrepreneurial

companies with little fear of failure and a host of

ambitions. China is by no means an easy market to penetrate, with plenty of

red tape.

While some western countries are active in helping startups and

entrepreneurs to achieve success in the technology age, facilitating growth is not seen as a priority for the Chinese government.

For all of China’s challenges, the country is quite prosperous. Particularly if you look at what some of the companies like WeChat, Xiaomi, and Didi Dache

are doing. For those unfamiliar with Chinese startups, WeChat is like WhatsApp, while Xiaomi makes

smartphones, and Didi Dache is a taxi-hailing app, much like Uber.

When looking at China from the outside, it is easy to get lost in the Association of China and low-cost, low-

quality products.

Without regulation to protect product quality, anything coming out of China isn’t considered to be

dependable. While iPhone covers and other low-involvement consumer products rarely require a high level of performance’, products such as LED lights and

items used for building apartments or houses that aren’t of high quality can be very risky to source.

However, sourcing products from China can be great for businesses seeking a competitive edge.

Recently, many Western entrepreneurs (and aspiring entrepreneurs) have been making the move to China to pursue their dreams. The reason? Technology and manufacturing are dominant. A land where tech and

manufacturing collide is an entrepreneurs dream.

Before making the move to China to chase your dreams, it’s important to understand what type of

country you are entering. There are as many cultural reasons to go to China as there are for professional

prosperity.

China has beautiful pristine rivers and lakes that leave you breathless.

Chinese architecture is fascinating.

The hard-working, obedient nature of the Chinese is truly refreshing.

Chinese food is downright the best food in the world.

You are in the homeland of Feng Shui.

The cost of everything is also much cheaper.

You will become worldly.

That gives you a good snapshot of what China can bring you from a personal standpoint. It’s important to remember that every new country you visit will

bring with it a wealth of experiences. However, from a personal growth standpoint moving to a country like

China is completely different to say, a country like England or Germany.

Understanding Chinese values is what will win you over in a foreign country like China, which is why

living there and understanding the culture before you engage in business is highly recommended.

For those wanting to get real experience and fast track career growth, working in China presents a

wonderful opportunity to work with companies that require your knowledge. If you do your research, you

will find that many of the elite US colleges are sending kids on exchanges to China. Some of these exchanges

have resulted in the students/graduates staying in China or heading back there at the end of their

courses.

Why?

Because in doing so, the colleges (such as Yale and Stanford) can provide their brilliant minds with expert

mentorship, seed money, office space, links to supplier networks and provide knowledge of the local

business ecosystem. Providing access is key to enabling young entrepreneurs to thrive. The

universities that have done this, however, understand what an incredible market China is to visit for their

elite students

The interest in China doesn’t stop there. You have startup incubators

now building presences in Beijing, and setting up

networking communities

US investment into the tech industry has essentially stalled.

On the back of the monetization struggle, many tech startups in the US are now struggling to secure funding without clear monetization models and

pathways. Whereas in the past, US venture capital firms were encouraged by companies that would

forego profit to re-invest, now they are wary of the companies five-year growth pathways and are

becoming much tighter with their funds.

Is this a surprise? Of course, it isn’t. There are companies around the world, from the US to the UK, and even Australia, who are becoming worried with the long pathway to profitability of some startups in year five and six with revenues of more than $200

million which still fail to reach profitability.

What’s it like in China? Well at the moment anyone with a promising idea and some experience can find money. Venture capital firms in China are continuing

to fund startups with proven performers in their ranks.

On top of that, the Chinese government sees

tech investment and a commitment to startups as a great way to create new jobs, launching a $6 billion fund for startups.

Another thing to keep an eye on is the performance of companies like YY. For those unfamiliar with YY, it

engages in managing a social communication platform, enabling users to join real-time online group activities through voice, text, and video. Despite the market spins on the Nasdaq in 2015, YY brought in $580 million, proving that Chinese tech companies

can cut it overseas too.

The best part about China is the entire country has changed its business culture from one that valued

financial security (especially after the early 90’s rise from poverty) to one that has embraced the fail fast,

learn quick ethos. Where failure was once seen as punishable, it is now valued in China as a necessary

step on the path to success.

Incredibly, while Chinese tech firms are out there challenging the big tech firms of the West, it appears

that opportunity is rising for western entrepreneurs to go and work in China. Entrepreneurs are now flocking

to China to collaborate with local factories and accelerators to bring ideas to fruition faster.

When the opportunity arises, it brings with it plenty of intrigue. Much like tech did to Silicon Valley; tech is

now doing to China. The difference? Companies in China can develop prototypes for much less. Oh,

there’s one more difference. China has more than 1 billion people. India, a culture with similarities to China in that it’s an underdeveloped rising world power with a huge population, is another market

Chinese companies feel they can capture.

If you could choose between Silicon Valley now, or Silicon Valley of 5-6 years ago, which would you

choose?

China is a booming market for tech. This is a market that has access to some of the best coders in the world. I am talking

about work ethics that you just do not find in other countries. On top of that, you have facilities that can manufacture products on the cheap. For aspiring entrepreneurs, this

presents an incredible opportunity. Not only will you be able to get your ideas built and turned into products on the cheap, but you can also test and at a low cost. This means that if you are following concepts such as those provided by Eric Reis in the Lean Startup, you can fail your way to success at a much

cheaper cost than you would in a country like the US.

Also, whether you are launching products in the US or China, starting from within China makes it easier to access

the Chinese Market. Why is this important? Well, the Chinese market is filled with companies that have

strangleholds on certain industries. Assuming you are from a country outside of China, you are immediately seen as a threat. Being a company from inside of China means that

you employ Chinese people, pay taxes in China, and generally will understand the way things work. You may not be able to climb through the market with ease, but you will

have greater success being at a company based in China.

The last key point about China is that unlike Silicon Valley, the market you are initially launching to isn’t a tick over 300 million, its more than four times that.

China’s population currently stands at over 1.35 billion people. More than 1 billion people than the US. So when you talk about wanting to gain a small % of

market share, you are still talking about big numbers.

Historically China has very much been a country of catch-up entrepreneurship, whereby it replicates products already on the market and manages to

produce competitive offerings that can either beat existing players on price or value. This is something

many entrepreneurs would consider a red ocean strategy, which refers to competing with organizations

in your industry based on either price or value.

While this was an effective strategy in the western world for some time, at the end of the day you can

only lower price so much without actually destroying the whole industry.

This is what globalization has done for many foreign countries. The access businesses now have to cheaper products in China has made companies, particularly in

manufacturing, unable to compete with Chinese counterparts. China can simply do it far cheaper than its competition, and has been successful. But there

comes a point where that has to end.

Now China is operating more of a blue ocean strategy model where it focuses on value innovation; creating products that are not already on the market and have no direct competitors. This resembles the US market

of the early 2000’s where companies were able to leverage technology to build blue oceans and capture

large market share.

BonusClick on the link below to read the full blog post!

https://blog.laowaicareer.com/entrepreneurial-opportunities-china

/

LaowaiCareer.comblog.LaowaiCareer.com

• Search Jobs• Register as a Job seeker.• Subscribe to our Newsletter, Job offers and Blo

gs• Read our blog